Surviving necropolitical developments amidst democratic disinformation - a pandemic perspective from Brazil

The global COVID-19 pandemic poses evolving dilemmas of disease, death, disability, and economic and socio-political inequalities and injustices, as the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to spread and evolve variants. This contribution reflects on the development of disinformation within reactionary populist politics in Brazil, with serious implications for the national health system, (SUS), and global public health. Official misinformation and disinformation (e.g. promoting unproven `early treatment) impacts public understanding and health behaviours in a pandemic, negatively impacting public health systems, personnel and capacities to prevent and minimise harm, while deepening harmful, unequal and disequalizing effects. We argue that development and global health ethics warrant urgent and direct attention to survival in a context of a burning public sphere. Disinformation and necropolitics must be countered using rights-based health systems universalism, giving equal attention to both the public, democratic and scientific, health bases of public health.